Help Maverick Heal: Support His Surgery & Road to Recovery!

Quick Introduction: My name is Stephanie and I am the very lucky Mommy of Maverick, a beautiful, stunning, and most importantly stereotype breaking 110-pound Pittie. I rescued Maverick in the middle of the night, in the spur of the moment, from some of the worst conditions I have ever seen a dog, much less a 4 week puppy in. He needed a lot of medical procedures done right off the bat.. He had, heartworms, fleas, ticks, ear and skin infections, pretty much anything and everything you can imagine.. We overcame A LOT together in those first several months, however we are now facing a CCL injury (much like a torn ACL in a human), requiring a quite pricey surgery to correct. There is further explanation below but for those of you who don't like to read that much.. I appreciate your thoughts and prayers and anything you can provide to help Maverick through this process!

The Short and Sweet Version: Maverick torn the CCL (similar to the ACL in a human) in his right knee and after doing x-rays he also has early onset deterioration of the cartilage around his hips, basically partially dislocating them. He needs surgery immediately to fix the damaged knee, so we do not risk damaging the other knee due to compensating from the current damaged knee and additional damage to both of his hips which could in the long term paralyze him from the waist down and being a 110 pound dog, means a very painful and unhappy life... or the end of his life altogether. I have already far extended myself financially to get the initial x-rays done and the ongoing need for meds to manage his pain, anti-inflammatories, anti-anxiety to keep him calm and off the leg as much as possible, etc. etc. etc. I am at the end of my financial abilities to continue to help him, so any little bit would help! Please read Maverick's Full Story below for all details. I will provide updates as things proceed! 

Maverick's Full Story: A few months ago, Maverick jumped out of the truck on my property and took off after something in the woods. Shortly after entering the woods , I heard a loud whimper and he soon re-appeared limping on 3 legs.. Later that day he seemed to be doing better and his limp was on and off in the following couple months. I contributed this to cold weather and possibly early onset arthritis. However, as he did not improve over time, I took him to the vet and got x-rays done to see what was really going on.. The x-rays results were, well.. scary to say the least.. Not only is there clear damage in his injured knee but due to his breed they also took some x-rays of his hips and he has pretty extensive deterioration of the cartilage around his hips. Due to this, his hips are not lined up properly. On the x-rays it almost looks like at least one of the hips was popped out of the joint or dislocated... The vet advised me to get a second opinion from an Orthopedic Vet, as they would not immediately recommend surgery because they could not see a full tear of the CCL and they typically do not operate on partial tears.

After this appointment, I did A LOT of research and came across a company that made custom braces for injuries such as this and the reviews were incredible. Many people stating they could not afford the $8,000-$10,000 knee surgery and the brace allowed their fur babies to get back to a somewhat normal life. Because I am not in the financial position to shovel out the kind of money needed for the surgery, I thought the brace would be the best option moving forward.

At this point I did reach out to the Orthopedic Vet, as I would need them to do the casting for the custom brace. I scheduled the appointment and knowing they would push for the surgery; I had full intentions of fighting back on this and proceeding with the custom orthopedic brace because the cost of surgery simply was not an option for me. I met with Dr. Vitucci at Community Care Veterinary Specialists, who was absolutely AMAZING. He slowly walked me through Maverick's condition in great detail. He showed me the x-rays that our regular vet never bothered to show or explain to me. He explained that while custom orthopedic braces can be helpful in some situations, he would HIGHLY advise against it for Maverick. The reason for this is Maverick already has one bad knee, that automatically increases his chance of injuring the other knee by 63%, when you add in the issues with his hips, he explained that the custom brace would be the equivalent of putting a band-aid on a stab wound. Ultimately, the brace would cause him to compensate on the other knee even more than he already is, only increasing the chances of damaging the other knee and would drastically increase the speed of deterioration in his hips. He explained that if we did not do the surgery to fix the knee injury soon, we would likely end up spending more money in the long run, dealing with his other knee potentially going out, his hips deteriorating, daily and multiple pricey medications and it could potentially even lead to him being completely unable to use his back legs and paralysis.. Being a 110 pound dog, this would ultimately mean the end of his life..

The tough part about this decision unfortunately comes down to money. The Orthopedic Surgeon quoted me about $8,000 for the surgery and everything that comes along with it and I have also spent a substantial amount of money preparing for post-surgery recovery at home. Maverick, while needing to move the leg some for post-surgery rehab purposes, absolutely cannot be jumping on and off things like beds and couches like he is used to doing. So I have purchased baby gates, dog pens, giant pee pads, e-collars, anti-lick sleeves etc. all to keep him confined and as comfortable as possible throughout his healing process..

I have never been the kind of person to reach out and ask others to help me with the responsibilities I have chosen to take on. However, I have no choice but to ask for your help now.. Everyone that has ever had the pleasure of meeting Maverick has immediately fallen in love with him. He is a big boy, but he is really just a big baby who is afraid of fireworks, backs away when he sees a bug cross his path and proceeds with extreme caution when the wind blows the bushes in the slightest bit. A big boy who loves all his people, loves his kitty cats and any other living being he encounters. Maverick deserves to live a full, happy and healthy life!

Please help me in saving my sweet boy's life. I never knew I could love something or someone so much until I adopted Maverick and I cannot imagine a world without him in it. I have always struggled with deep, unsettling anxiety and Maverick is the only thing that has ever been able to help me live a more normal life, filled with less anxiety. He brightens my day everyday and everybody else's day that gets the opportunity to be around him!

PLEASE HELP ME SAVE MY SWEET BOY, please help me get him back to the fully happy, healthy dog he should be. Please help Maverick live out the rest of his life in peace and comfort!

I thank, love and appreciate all who have read this in full! If you cannot help, I understand. However whether you can give nothing or a little or a lot, please share Maverick's GoFundMe with all your animal loving friends and family and help me make a dent in this huge debt I am undertaking to try and save my sweet boys life!

<3